How to Make a Mailing List on Excel

Image 1 - Sample Labels

MS Excel is a tool for creating valuable forms, charts, computations and data lists. Mailing lists are important business forms that can easily be generated with the help of Excel. Here's a guide on how to make a mailing list in MS Excel 2007.

Things You'll Need

• MS Excel 2007
• Mailing List

Instructions

How to Create a Mailing List with Excel

1. Open a blank Excel spreadsheet.

2. 

   Enter the labels you want to include in your mailing list on the top row. Shown in the sample are labels for first name, last name, address, city, state, country and zip code (see sample in Image 1).

3. 

   Immediately below the labels, type the first entries of your mailing list (Image 2).

4. 

   Format your mailing list as a table by clicking the "Format as Table" button (located in the "Styles" tab on the "Home" menu) and choose the table format you want. The "Format as Table" dialog box will pop out. Click the check box beside "My table has headers," then click "OK" (Image 3).

5. 

   You can now complete the mailing list by typing the next entries. Press "Tab" as you move to the next cell. Excel will automatically format the next cells and rows on your table as you click on the Tab key (Image 4).

6. After typing all the entries in your mailing list, save and close your Excel sheet.

7. Open the Word document that contains the text template for the letter or file that you want to use with the mailing list.

8. 

   Click Mailings > Start Mail Merge > Step by step Mail Merge Wizard. This will show the Mail Merge wizard on the right-hand side of your document (Image 5).

9. 

   Select the "Document Type" you want to use then click "Next" at the bottom. In the example, "E-mail messages" is the document type (Image 6).

10. 

    Select "Use the current document," then "Next" at the bottom to select recipients (Image 7).

11. 

    Select Use an existing list > Browse > Open > Select Sheet/Table. Click "OK" on the mail merge recipients dialog box (Image 8).

12. 

    Click "Greeting Line," format the salutation and click "OK." It will automatically insert a greeting line on your template (Image 9).

13. 

    Repeat Step 12 for the address block list (Image 10). Preview your custom template. If everything looks fine, click "Complete the merge."

14. 

    The final step is to print the file or edit them individually, whichever you prefer to use for your mailing list (Image 11).

1. 

1. 

1. 

1. 

1. 

Tips & Warnings

• You can filter the mailing list on your Excel sheet to control the data that will appear in the letter or form.

• This guide is applicable to MS Excel version 2007 only.

References

• Excel 2007 AIO Desk Reference for Dummies; Greg Harvey PhD; Jan 2007

Resources

• How to Set Up a Mailing List in Excel